161-482: Project MKUltra was a human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used during interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture . The term MKUltra is a CIA cryptonym : "MK" is an arbitrary prefix standing for the Office of Technical Service and "Ultra"
322-553: A chemotherapy treatment against brain tumors , which all but one of the patients had (one being a misdiagnosis). Sweet, who died in 2001, maintained that consent had been obtained from the patients and next of kin. From April 10, 1945, to July 18, 1947, eighteen people were injected with plutonium as part of the Manhattan Project . Doses administered ranged from 95 to 5,900 nanocuries . Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services ( OSS )
483-621: A nephrologist and professor at the University of Chicago Medical School, purposely infected psychiatric patients at the Illinois State Hospital with malaria so that he could test experimental treatments on them. In a 1946 to 1948 study in Guatemala , U.S. researchers used prostitutes to infect prison inmates, insane asylum patients, and Guatemalan soldiers with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases to test
644-430: A 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox, tasteless poison tablets ("K" and "L" pills), and cigarettes laced with tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (an extract of Indian hemp) to induce uncontrollable chattiness. The OSS also developed innovative communication equipment such as wiretap gadgets, electronic beacons for locating agents, and the "Joan-Eleanor" portable radio system that made it possible for operatives on
805-834: A book called The Plutonium Files . In a 1949 operation called the " Green Run ", the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) released iodine-131 and xenon-133 into the atmosphere near the Hanford site in Washington, which contaminated a 500,000-acre (2,000 km ) area containing three small towns. In 1953, the AEC ran several studies at the University of Iowa on the health effects of radioactive iodine in newborns and pregnant women. In one study, researchers gave pregnant women between 100 and 200 microcuries (3.7 and 7.4 MBq ) of iodine-131, and later performed abortions to study
966-573: A cache of 20,000 documents relating to MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings. Some surviving information about MKUltra was declassified in 2001. During the early 1940s, Nazi scientists working in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during World War II conducted interrogation experiments on human subjects . Substances such as barbiturates , morphine derivatives, and hallucinogens such as mescaline were employed in experiments conducted on Polish, Russian, Jewish, and other nationalities' prisoners of war . The aim of these experiments
1127-471: A captured Kϋbelwagon ; to report by radio. But the Kϋbelwagon was put out of action while in the glider; three tires and the long-range radio were shot up (German gunners were told to attack the gliders not the tow planes). The OSS espionage and sabotage operations produced a steady demand for highly specialized equipment. General Donovan invited experts, organized workshops, and funded labs that later formed
1288-465: A complete understanding of the more than 150 funded research subprojects sponsored by MKUltra and related CIA programs. The project began during a period of what English journalist Rupert Cornwell described as "paranoia" at the CIA, when the U.S. had lost its nuclear monopoly and fear of communism was at its height. CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed that a mole had penetrated
1449-654: A consent form for procedures that he claimed were "vaccinations". In reality, the procedures involved deliberately infecting children with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of patients infected with the disease. In 1952, Chester M. Southam , a Sloan-Kettering Institute researcher, injected live cancer cells, known as HeLa cells, into prisoners at the Ohio State Penitentiary and cancer patients. Also at Sloan-Kettering, 300 healthy females were injected with live cancer cells without being told. The doctors stated that they knew at
1610-548: A financial records building and were discovered following a FOIA request in 1977. These documents were fully investigated during the Senate Hearings of 1977. In December 1974, The New York Times alleged that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the 1960s. That report prompted investigations by the United States Congress , in the form of
1771-565: A heart attack while he and his son were mountain climbing. None of Cameron's personal records of his involvement with MKUltra survived because his family destroyed them after his death. The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, the Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances. Unethical human experimentation in
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#17327902073861932-427: A lesion on her head. The lesion was diagnosed as a cancerous ulcer and surgical treatments were attempted. Bartholow saw Rafferty's condition as terminal but felt there was a research opportunity. He inserted electrode needles into her exposed brain matter to gauge her responses. This was done with no intention of treating her. Although Rafferty came out of the coma caused by the experiment three days later, she died from
2093-559: A lot of information, its reliability was increasingly questioned by British intelligence. By May 1944, through collaboration between the OSS, British intelligence, Cairo, and Washington, the entire Dogwood-chain was found to be unreliable and dangerous. Planting phony information into the OSS was intended to misdirect the resources of the Allies. Schwarz's Dogwood-chain, which was the largest American intelligence gathering tool in occupied territory,
2254-420: A massive seizure the following day. Bartholow described his experiment as follows: When the needle entered the brain substance, she complained of acute pain in the neck. To develop more decided reactions, the strength of the current was increased ... her countenance exhibited great distress, and she began to cry. Very soon, the left hand was extended as if in the act of taking hold of some object in front of her;
2415-484: A medical experiment. A review of the medical literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries found more than 40 reports of experimental infections with gonorrheal culture, including some, where gonorrheal organisms were applied to the eyes of sick children. U.S. Army doctors in the Philippines infected 5 prisoners with bubonic plague directly, and separately induced beriberi in 29 prisoners resulting in
2576-514: A mental patient in Kentucky for 174 days. They also administered LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, and members of the general public to study their reactions. The aim was to find drugs that would bring out deep confessions or wipe a subject's mind clean and program them as "a robot agent". Military personnel who received the mind-altering drugs were also threatened with courts-martial if they told anyone about
2737-445: A night aide. The project studied the effects of psychoactive drugs , particularly LSD , psilocybin , mescaline , cocaine , AMT and DMT on people. The Office of Security used LSD in interrogations, but Sidney Gottlieb , the chemist who directed MKUltra, had other ideas: he thought it could be used in covert operations. Since its effects were temporary, he believed it could be given to high-ranking officials and in this way affect
2898-461: A painful symptom of the illness, and stopped eating during part of the experiment. On the same day, he inoculated a "healthy six-year-old" who experienced similar symptoms. He submitted his research to the Journal of Experimental Medicine which rejected the findings due to the ethically questionable research methods used in the study. Rous called the experiment "an abuse of power, an infringement of
3059-589: A personal assistant named Walter Arndt and established himself as an employee of the Istanbul Western Electrik Kompani. Through Schwarz and Arndt the OSS was able to infiltrate anti-fascist groups in Austria, Hungary, and Germany. Schwarz was able to convince Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Swiss diplomatic couriers to smuggle American intelligence information into these territories and establish contact with elements antagonistic to
3220-474: A result, plans and production facilities for V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks and aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.) were passed on to Allied general staffs in order to enable Allied bombers to get accurate air strikes. The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews through its contacts with the Semperit factory near Auschwitz. The group was gradually dismantled by
3381-582: A selection of men who would be too embarrassed to talk about the events. The men were dosed with LSD, the brothels were equipped with one-way mirrors , and the sessions were filmed for later viewing and study. In other experiments where people were given LSD without their knowledge, they were interrogated under bright lights with doctors in the background taking notes. They told subjects they would extend their "trips" if they refused to reveal their secrets. The people under this interrogation were CIA employees, U.S. military personnel, and agents suspected of working for
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#17327902073863542-400: A series of super-hallucinogens such as the highly touted BZ , which was thought to hold greater promise as a mind control weapon. This resulted in the withdrawal of support by many academics and private researchers, and LSD research became less of a priority altogether. Another technique investigated was the intravenous administration of a barbiturate into one arm and an amphetamine into
3703-399: A state institution. That the tests were wholly justified goes without saying. Rous closely monitored the articles he published since the 1930s, when revival of the anti-vivisectionist movement raised pressure against certain human experimentation. In 1941, Dr. William C. Black inoculated a twelve-month-old baby with herpes who was "offered as a volunteer". The twelve-month-old developed
3864-791: A state of disorientation in the subject, and then creating a situation of "self-inflicted" discomfort in which the disoriented subject can alleviate pain by capitulating. In areas under American control in the early 1950s in Europe and East Asia, mostly Japan , West Germany and the Philippines , the CIA created secret detention centers ( Black sites ) so that the U.S. could avoid criminal prosecution. The CIA captured people suspected of being enemy agents and other people it deemed "expendable" to undertake various types of torture and human experimentation on them. The prisoners were interrogated while being administered psychoactive drugs, electroshocked and subjected to extremes of temperature, sensory isolation and
4025-587: A variety of sites, primary among these was Station S in Northern Virginia near where Dulles International Airport now stands. Recent research from remaining records from the OSS Station S program describes how those characteristics (independent thought, effective intelligence, interpersonal skills) were found among OSS candidates One such agent was Ivy League polyglot and Jewish American baseball catcher Moe Berg , who played 15 seasons in
4186-574: Is an arbitrary word out of a dictionary to denominate this project. Project MKUltra began in 1953 and was halted in 1973. MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate its subjects' mental states and brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs (especially LSD ) and other chemicals without the subjects' consent. Additionally, other methods beyond chemical compounds were used, including electroshocks , hypnosis , sensory deprivation , isolation, verbal and sexual abuse , and other forms of torture . Project MKUltra
4347-557: Is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans and might have adverse effect on public opinion or result in legal suits. Documents covering such work should be classified 'secret'. — April 17, 1947 Atomic Energy Commission memo from Colonel O.G. Haywood, Jr. to Dr. Fidler at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee Between 1946 and 1947, researchers at
4508-478: Is still occasionally uncovered. Past examples of unethical experiments include the exposure of humans to chemical and biological weapons (including infections with deadly or debilitating diseases), human radiation experiments , injections of toxic and radioactive chemicals, surgical experiments, interrogation and torture experiments, tests which involve mind-altering substances, and a wide variety of other experiments. Many of these tests are performed on children,
4669-523: The American Cancer Society elected him as their vice president. From 1963 to 1974, as part of Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD), the U.S. Army performed tests which involved spraying several U.S. ships with various biological and chemical warfare agents, while thousands of U.S. military personnel were aboard the ships. The personnel were not notified of the tests, and were not given any protective clothing. Chemicals tested on
4830-720: The Axis powers during World War II , including Mao Zedong 's Red Army in China (known as the Dixie Mission ) and the Viet Minh in French Indochina . OSS officer Archimedes Patti played a central role in OSS operations in French Indochina and met frequently with Ho Chi Minh in 1945. One of the greatest accomplishments of the OSS during World War II was its penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS operatives. The OSS
4991-519: The Central Intelligence Agency ; and in other cases were sponsored by private corporations which were involved in military activities. The human research programs were usually highly secretive and performed without the knowledge or authorization of Congress, and in many cases information about them was not released until many years after the studies had been performed. The ethical, professional, and legal implications of this in
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5152-571: The Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission , both of 1975, and the 1994 Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments , among others. Throughout the 1840s, J. Marion Sims , who is often referred to as "the father of gynecology ," performed surgical experiments on infants, enslaved African women, and girls as young as 13 without anesthesia for the treatment of conditions including vesicovaginal fistula , Neonatal tetanus , and other similar conditions. The patients—one of whom
5313-756: The Church Committee , and by a commission known as the Rockefeller Commission that looked into the illegal domestic activities of the CIA, the FBI and intelligence-related agencies of the military. In the summer of 1975, congressional Church Committee reports and the presidential Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the Department of Defense had conducted experiments on both unwitting and cognizant human subjects as part of an extensive program to find out how to influence and control human behavior through
5474-853: The Department of State 's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On December 14, 2016, the organization was collectively honored with a Congressional Gold Medal . Prior to the formation of the OSS, the various departments of the executive branch, including the State , Treasury , Navy , and War Departments, conducted American intelligence activities on an ad hoc basis, with no overall direction, coordination, or control. The US Army and US Navy had separate code-breaking departments: Signal Intelligence Service and OP-20-G . (A previous code-breaking operation of
5635-727: The Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in Brooklyn , New York City were injected with live cancer cells by Chester M. Southam , who in 1952 had done the same to prisoners at the Ohio State Prison, to "discover the secret of how healthy bodies fight the invasion of malignant cells". The administration of the hospital attempted to cover the study up, but the New York medical licensing board ultimately placed Southam on probation for one year. Two years later,
5796-459: The Korean War . The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives, and was interested in manipulating foreign leaders with such techniques, devising several schemes to drug Fidel Castro . It often conducted experiments without the subjects' knowledge and/or consent. In some cases, academic researchers were funded through grants from CIA front organizations but were unaware that the CIA
5957-832: The National Institutes of Health , the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the World Health Organization 's Pan American Health Organization ) and the Guatemalan government. The team was led by John Charles Cutler , who later participated in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments . Cutler chose to do the study in Guatemala because he would not have been permitted to do it in the United States. In 2010 when
6118-694: The New York City Subway system, as part of a field experiment called A Study of the Vulnerability of Subway Passengers in New York City to Covert Attack with Biological Agents . The Chicago subway system was also subject to a similar experiment by the Army. Researchers in the United States have performed thousands of human radiation experiments to determine the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination on
6279-535: The Office of Strategic Services began developing a "truth drug" that would produce "uninhibited truthfulness" in an interrogated person. In 1947, the United States Navy initiated Project CHATTER , an interrogation program which saw the first testing of LSD on human subjects. In 1950, the Central Intelligence Agency under the direction of general Walter Bedell Smith initiated a series of interrogation projects involving human subjects, beginning with
6440-541: The Rockefeller Institute and editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine , wrote the following to Francis regarding the experiments: It may save you much trouble if you publish your paper... elsewhere than in the Journal of Experimental Medicine . The Journal is under constant scrutiny by the anti-vivisectionists who would not hesitate to play up the fact that you used for your tests human beings of
6601-672: The San Quentin Prison , performed a wide variety of experiments on hundreds of prisoners. Many of the experiments involved testicular implants, where Stanley would take testicles out of executed prisoners and surgically implant them into living prisoners. In other experiments, he attempted to implant the testicles of rams , goats, and boars into living prisoners. Stanley also performed various eugenics experiments and forced sterilizations on prisoners. Stanley believed that his experiments would rejuvenate old men, control crime (which he believed had biological causes), and prevent
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6762-627: The United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce released a report entitled American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Radiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens . In the 1990s, Eileen Welsome 's reports on radiation testing for The Albuquerque Tribune prompted the creation of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments by executive order of president Bill Clinton to monitor government tests; it published results in 1995. Welsome later wrote
6923-651: The University of Nebraska College of Medicine fed iodine-131 to 28 healthy infants through a gastric tube to test the concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands. In 1953, the AEC sponsored a study to discover if radioactive iodine affected premature babies differently from full-term babies. In the experiment, researchers from Harper Hospital in Detroit orally administered iodine-131 to 65 premature and full-term infants who weighed from 2.1 to 5.5 pounds (0.95 to 2.49 kg). In Alaska, starting in August 1955,
7084-656: The University of Pennsylvania deliberately infected 200 female prisoners with viral hepatitis . From the 1950s to 1972, mentally disabled children at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island , New York, were intentionally infected with viral hepatitis, for research whose purpose was to help discover a vaccine . From 1963 to 1966, Saul Krugman of New York University promised the parents of mentally disabled children that their children would be enrolled into Willowbrook in exchange for signing
7245-563: The University of Rochester injected uranium-234 and uranium-235 in dosages ranging from 6.4 to 70.7 micrograms per kilogram of body weight into six people to study how much uranium their kidneys could tolerate before becoming damaged. Between 1953 and 1957, at the Massachusetts General Hospital , Dr. William Sweet injected eleven terminally ill, comatose and semi-comatose patients with uranium in an experiment to determine, among other things, its viability as
7406-495: The "Spy School" and also sent for parachute, weapons, and commando training, and Morse code and encryption lessons at STS 102. After completion of their spy training, these agents were sent back on missions to the Balkans and Italy where their accents would not pose a problem for their assimilation. The names of all 13,000 OSS personnel and documents of their OSS service, previously a closely guarded secret, were released by
7567-439: The "unfit" from reproducing. From 1955 to 1960, Sonoma State Hospital in northern California served as a permanent drop-off location for mentally disabled children diagnosed with cerebral palsy or lesser disorders. The children subsequently underwent painful experimentation without adult consent. Many were given spinal taps "for which they received no direct benefit." Reporters of 60 Minutes learned that in these five years,
7728-409: The AEC selected a total of 102 Inuit natives and Athapascan Indigenous peoples who would be used to study the effects of radioactive iodine on thyroid tissue, particularly in cold environments. Over a two-year span, the test subjects were given doses of I-131 and samples of saliva, urine, blood, and thyroid tissue were collected from them. The purpose and risks of the radioactive iodine dosing, along with
7889-511: The Allies advanced, a school was established in southern Italy. In the Far East, OSS training facilities were established in India, Ceylon, and then China. The London branch of the OSS, its first overseas facility, was at 70 Grosvenor Street, W1. In addition to training local agents, the overseas OSS schools also provided advanced training and field exercises for graduates of the training camps in
8050-574: The Axis and Allied powers had spy networks. The railroads connecting central Asia with Europe, as well as Turkey's close proximity to the Balkan states, placed it at a crossroads of intelligence gathering. The goal of the OSS Istanbul operation called Project Net-1 was to infiltrate and extenuate subversive action in the old Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires . The head of operations at OSS Istanbul
8211-496: The CIA attempted to focus media attention on these sorts of "ridiculous" programs so that the public would not look at the research's primary goal, which was effective methods of interrogation. The 1976 Church Committee report found that, in the MKDELTA program, "Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting or disabling purposes." In 1964, MKSEARCH
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#17327902073868372-593: The CIA had found a set of records, consisting of about 20,000 pages, that had survived the 1973 destruction orders because they had been incorrectly stored at a records center not usually used for such documents. These files dealt with the financing of MKUltra projects and contained few project details, but much more was learned from them than from the Inspector General's 1963 report. On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said: The Deputy Director of
8533-442: The CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, the result of the alleged defenestration of Frank Olson ,
8694-596: The Department of Medicine (now the Pritzker School of Medicine ) at the University of Chicago in conjunction with the United States Army and the U.S. State Department . At the Nuremberg trials , Nazi doctors cited the precedent of the malaria experiments as part of their defense. The study continued at Stateville Penitentiary for 29 years. In related studies from 1944 to 1946, Dr. Alf Alving,
8855-699: The Far East and provided equipment for agents until American production was established. Writes Fink: William Casey , who headed up OSS's Europe-based human-intelligence operations, the Secret Intelligence Branch, and went on to become director of the CIA, wrote in his autobiography, The Secret War Against Hitler , that Ellis was not only writing blueprints but involved in on-the-ground, logistical programs: "Dick Ellis, [an] experienced British pro, helped establish training centres, mostly around Washington." United States Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle commented: "The really active head of
9016-754: The German authorities because of a double agent who worked for both the OSS and the Gestapo. This uncovered a transfer of money from the Americans to Vienna via Istanbul and Budapest, and most of the members were executed after a People's Court hearing. In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services set up operations in Istanbul. Turkey, as a neutral country during the Second World War, was a place where both
9177-508: The MKUltra project was not about mind control and brainwashing, but about designing "a scientifically based system for extracting information from 'resistant sources'. In other words, torture." Alfred W. McCoy writes, "Stripped of its bizarre excesses, Dr. Cameron's experiments, building upon Donald O. Hebb 's earlier breakthrough, laid the scientific foundation for the CIA's two-stage psychological torture method", referring to first creating
9338-523: The National Institute of Mental Health Addiction Research Center in Kentucky were given LSD for 77 consecutive days. MKUltra's researchers later dismissed LSD as too unpredictable in its results. They gave up on the notion that LSD was "the secret that was going to unlock the universe", but it still had a place in the cloak-and-dagger arsenal. However, by 1962, the CIA and the army developed
9499-708: The National Park Service to add the Headquarters complex to the National Register of Historic Places. At Camp X , near Whitby, Ontario , an "assassination and elimination" training program was operated by the British Special Operations Executive , assigning exceptional masters in the art of knife-wielding combat, such as William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes , to instruct trainees. Many members of
9660-527: The Nazis and their collaborators. Couriers and agents memorized information and produced analytical reports; when they were not able to memorize effectively they recorded information on microfilm and hid it in their shoes or hollowed pencils. Through this process information about the Nazi regime made its way to Macfarland and the OSS in Istanbul and eventually to Washington. While the OSS "Dogwood-chain" produced
9821-467: The Negro Male") was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama , by the U.S. Public Health Service . In the experiment, 399 impoverished black males who were infected with syphilis were then offered "treatment" by the researchers, who did not tell the test subjects that they had syphilis and did not give them treatment for the disease, but rather just studied them to chart
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#17327902073869982-463: The OSS between the Army and the Navy. While explaining the purpose and mission of his department and introducing various gadgets and tools, he reportedly casually dropped into a waste basket a Hedy, a panic-inducing explosive device in the shape of a firecracker, which shortly produced a loud shrieking sound followed by a deafening boom. The presentation was interrupted and did not resume since everyone in
10143-579: The OSS during World War II . Julia Child , who later authored cookbooks, worked directly under Donovan. René Joyeuse M.D. , MS , FACS was a Swiss, French and American soldier, physician and researcher, who distinguished himself as an agent of Allied intelligence in German-occupied France during World War II. He received the US Army Distinguished Service Cross for his actions with the OSS, after
10304-514: The OSS employed almost 24,000 people. From 1943 to 1945, the OSS played a major role in training Kuomintang troops in China and Burma , and recruited Kachin and other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in Burma fighting the Japanese Army. Among other activities, the OSS helped arm, train, and supply resistance movements in areas occupied by
10465-462: The OSS, after the expansion out of and away from COI, eventually found itself headquartered at a complex near 23rd Street and E Street in Washington, D.C. This complex was unassuming, appearing to be a mix of normal government offices and apartment buildings to nearby residents and office workers. It is known as the "Navy Hill Complex," "Potomac Hill Complex," and the " E Street Complex ." The OSS Society and State Department have engaged in efforts with
10626-534: The Office of Strategic Services also were trained there. It was dubbed "the school of mayhem and murder" by George Hunter White who trained at the facility in the 1940's. Beginning in January 1941, Colonel Millard Preston Goodfellow , creator and Director of the Special Operations Branch (at this time still known as SA/G within the COI), negotiated with the National Park Service to obtain three tracts of land to be dedicated as training camps for both SA/G and SA/B. In March, he assigned Garland H. Williams to be
10787-402: The Rockefeller Center". According to Thomas F. Troy, paraphrasing Stephenson, Ellis 'was the tradecraft expert, the organization man, the one who furnished Bill Donovan with charts and memoranda on running an intelligence organization". Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers and the existing US agencies were skeptical if not hostile to the British. Until some months after Pearl Harbor,
10948-696: The Soviets could do the same to the CIA's own operatives. Documents obtained from the CIA by John D. Marks under Freedom of Information in 1976 showed that, in 1953, the CIA considered purchasing 10 kilograms of LSD, enough for 100 million doses. The proposed purchase aimed to stop other countries from controlling the supply. The documents showed that the CIA purchased some quantities of LSD from Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. Once Project MKUltra started, in April 1953, experiments included administering LSD to mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes – "people who could not fight back", as one agency officer put it. In one case, they administered LSD to
11109-412: The State Department, the MI-8 , run by Herbert Yardley , had been shut down in 1929 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson , deeming it an inappropriate function for the diplomatic arm, because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail." ) The FBI was responsible for domestic security and anti-espionage operations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about American intelligence deficiencies. On
11270-405: The Training Director of these facilities. Commander N.G.A Woolley was loaned to COI by the British Navy and helped Donovan and Goodfellow to organize underwater training and craft landing. From these incipient beginnings, the Office of Strategic Services opened camps in the United States, and finally abroad. Prince William Forest Park (then known as Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area)
11431-409: The U.S. military personnel included the nerve gases VX and Sarin , toxic chemicals such as zinc cadmium sulfide and sulfur dioxide , and a variety of biological agents including Bacillus globigii , Coxiella burnetii (the causative agent of Q fever ), and Francisella tularensis , the causative agent of Tularemia . In 1966, the U.S. Army released Bacillus globigii into the tunnels of
11592-497: The US National Archives on August 14, 2008. Among the 24,000 names were those of Sterling Hayden , Milton Wolff , Carl C. Cable , Julia Child , Ralph Bunche , Arthur Goldberg , Saul K. Padover , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. , Bruce Sundlun , William Colby , René Joyeuse , and John Ford . The 750,000 pages in the 35,000 personnel files include applications of people who were not recruited or hired, as well as
11753-584: The United States Numerous experiments which were performed on human test subjects in the United States in the past are now considered to have been unethical , because they were performed without the knowledge or informed consent of the test subjects . Such tests have been performed throughout American history , but have become significantly less frequent with the advent and adoption of various safeguarding efforts. Despite these safeguards, unethical experimentation involving human subjects
11914-552: The United States (the Rockefeller Commission). Investigative efforts were hampered by CIA Director Richard Helms 's order that all MKUltra files be destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the small number of documents that survived Helms's order. In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered
12075-762: The United States and for Americans who enlisted in the OSS in the war zones. The most famous of the latter was Virginia Hall in France. The OSS's Mediterranean training center in Cairo, Egypt, known to many as the Spy School , was a lavish palace belonging to King Farouk's brother-in-law, called Ras el Kanayas . It was modeled after the SOE's training facility STS 102 in Haifa, Palestine. Americans whose heritage stemmed from Italy , Yugoslavia , and Greece were trained at
12236-400: The United States medical and scientific community were quite significant and led to many institutions and policies that attempted to ensure that future human subject research in the United States would be ethical and legal. Public outrage in the late 20th century over the discovery of government experiments on human subjects led to numerous congressional investigations and hearings, including
12397-412: The ability to fulfill his experiment by spreading LSD to prisons, hospitals, institutions, clinics, and foundations in order to see how citizens would react to the drug without knowing exactly what was happening to them. Early CIA efforts focused on LSD-25 , which later came to dominate many of MKUltra's programs. The CIA wanted to know if they could make Soviet spies defect against their will and whether
12558-449: The arm presently was agitated with clonic spasm; her eyes became fixed, with pupils widely dilated; lips were blue, and she frothed at the mouth; her breathing became stertorous ; she lost consciousness and was violently convulsed on the left side. The convulsion lasted five minutes and was succeeded by a coma. She returned to consciousness in twenty minutes from the beginning of the attack, and complained of some weakness and vertigo . In
12719-943: The base at the Gjefsjøen mountain farm, the group conducted successful railroad sabotages, with the intention of preventing the withdrawal of German forces from northern Norway. Operasjon Rype was the only U.S. operation on German-occupied Norwegian soil during WW2. The group consisted mainly of Norwegian Americans recruited from the 99th Infantry Battalion . Operasjon Rype was led by William Colby . The OSS sent four teams of two under Captain Stephen Vinciguerra (codename Algonquin , teams Alsace, Poissy, S&S and Student), with Operation Varsity in March 1945 to infiltrate and report from behind enemy lines, but none succeeded. Team S&S had two agents in Wehrmacht uniforms and
12880-498: The blueprint. Said Ellis: I was soon requested to draft a blueprint for an American intelligence agency, the equivalent of BSC [British Security Co-ordination] and based on these British wartime improvisations... detailed tables of organisation were disclosed to Washington... among these were the organisational tables that led to the birth of General William Donovan's OSS. After submitting his (and Ellis's) work, "Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information", Donovan
13041-490: The brain of every child with cerebral palsy who died at Sonoma State was removed and studied without parental consent. In the 1880s, in Hawaii, a Californian physician working at a hospital for lepers injected six girls under the age of 12 with syphilis . In 1895, New York City pediatrician Henry Heiman intentionally infected two mentally disabled boys—one four-year-old and one sixteen-year-old—with gonorrhea as part of
13202-565: The bulk of OSS intelligence came from the UK. British Security Co-ordination (BSC), under the direction of Ellis, trained the first OSS agents in Canada, until training stations were set up in the US with guidance from BSC instructors, who also provided information on how the SOE was arranged and managed. The British immediately made available their short-wave broadcasting capabilities to Europe, Africa, and
13363-530: The children and painful lesions and inflammation of the eyes in many of the others. In the study, they refer to the children as "material used". In 1909, Frank Crazier Knowles published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association describing how he had deliberately infected two children in an orphanage with Molluscum contagiosum —a virus that causes wart-like growths but usually disappears entirely—after an outbreak in
13524-567: The collection of body fluid and tissue samples was not explained to the test subjects, and the AEC did not conduct any follow-up studies to monitor for long-term health effects. In an experiment in the 1960s, over 100 Alaskan citizens were continually exposed to radioactive iodine. In 1962, the Hanford site again released I-131, stationing test subjects along its path to record its effect on them. The AEC also recruited Hanford volunteers to ingest milk contaminated with I-131 during this time. It
13685-662: The consent obtained. Although she gave "cheerful assent" to the procedure, she was described as "feeble-minded" and may not have fully understood. Bartholow apologized for his actions and expressed regret that some knowledge had been gained "at the expense of some injury to the patient." In 1896, Dr. Arthur Wentworth performed spinal taps on 29 young children without the knowledge or consent of their parents at Children's Hospital Boston (now Boston Children's Hospital ) in Boston , Massachusetts to discover whether doing so would be harmful. From 1913 to 1951, Leo Stanley , chief surgeon at
13846-785: The core of the Research & Development Branch. Boston chemist Stanley P. Lovell became its first head, and Donovan humorously called him his " Professor Moriarty ". Throughout the war years, the OSS Research & Development successfully adapted Allied weapons and espionage equipment, and produced its own line of novel spy tools and gadgets, including silenced pistols, lightweight sub-machine guns, " Beano " grenades that exploded upon impact, explosives disguised as lumps of coal ("Black Joe") or bags of Chinese flour ("Aunt Jemima"), acetone time delay fuses for limpet mines , compasses hidden in uniform buttons, playing cards that concealed maps,
14007-501: The course of important meetings, speeches, etc. Since he realized there was a difference in testing the drug in a laboratory and using it in clandestine operations, he initiated a series of experiments where LSD was given to people in "normal" settings without warning. At first, everyone in Technical Services tried it; a typical experiment involved two people in a room where they observed each other for hours and took notes. As
14168-624: The deaths of four test subjects. In 1906, Professor Richard P. Strong of Harvard University intentionally infected 24 Filipino prisoners with a live cholera vaccine, which had somehow become contaminated with bubonic plague. He did this without the consent of the patients, and without informing them of what he was doing. All of the subjects became sick and 13 died. In 1908, three Philadelphia researchers infected dozens of children with tuberculin at St. Vincent Orphanage in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, causing permanent blindness in some of
14329-408: The destruction of records ordered in 1973. However, it contained little detail. Sidney Gottlieb , who had retired from the CIA two years previously and had headed MKUltra, was interviewed by the committee but claimed to have very little recollection of the activities of MKUltra. The congressional committee investigating the CIA research, chaired by Senator Frank Church , concluded that "prior consent
14490-515: The direction of psychiatrist Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron , represents one of the most infamous and ethically controversial endeavors within the MKUltra program. This subproject aimed to explore innovative techniques for manipulating and controlling human behavior, particularly through the methods of " psychic driving " and "depatterning". Psychic driving involved subjecting patients to continuous playback of recorded messages, often with themes of self-improvement or identity reinforcement, while they were under
14651-486: The duration of World War II , the Office of Strategic Services was conducting multiple activities and missions, including collecting intelligence by spying, performing acts of sabotage , waging propaganda war, organizing and coordinating anti-Nazi resistance groups in Europe, and providing military training for anti-Japanese guerrilla movements in Asia, among other things. At the height of its influence during World War II,
14812-545: The effectiveness of penicillin in treating the STDs. They later tried infecting people with "direct inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured into the men's penises and on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded ... or in a few cases through spinal punctures". Approximately 700 people were infected as part of the study (including orphan children). The study was sponsored by the Public Health Service ,
14973-500: The experimentation program of testing drugs on unknowing citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the issuing of LSD to unaware subjects in social situations. The Army was subject to the testing of LSD which occurred in three phases. The first phase included over 1,000 American soldiers who willingly volunteered for testing of chemical warfare experiments. Phase two had 96 volunteers who were induced with LSD in evaluation of
15134-482: The experimentation progressed, a point arrived where outsiders were drugged with no explanation whatsoever and surprise acid trips became something of an occupational hazard among CIA operatives. Adverse reactions often occurred, such as an operative who received the drug in his morning coffee, became psychotic and ran across Washington, D.C., seeing a monster in every car passing him. The experiments continued even after Frank Olson , an army chemist who had never taken LSD,
15295-549: The experiments. LSD and other drugs were often administered without the subject's knowledge or informed consent , a violation of the Nuremberg Code the U.S. had agreed to follow after World War II. Many veterans who were subjected to experimentation are now seeking legal and monetary reparations. In Operation Midnight Climax , the CIA set up several brothels within agency safehouses in San Francisco to obtain
15456-712: The first chairman of the World Psychiatric Association as well as president of both the American Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Psychiatric Association . Cameron was also a member of the Nuremberg medical tribunal in 1946–1947. His work was inspired and paralleled by the British psychiatrist William Sargant at St Thomas' Hospital , London, and Belmont Hospital, Sutton , who
15617-521: The forefathers of today's commandos was Navy Lieutenant Jack Taylor . He was sequestered by the OSS early in the war and had a long career behind enemy lines. Taro and Mitsu Yashima , both Japanese political dissidents who were imprisoned in Japan for protesting its militarist regime, worked for the OSS in psychological warfare against the Japanese Empire. Nisei linguists In late 1943,
15778-466: The ground to establish secure contact with a plane that was preparing to land or drop cargo. The OSS Research & Development also printed fake German and Japanese-issued identification cards, and various passes, ration cards, and counterfeit money. On August 28, 1943, Stanley Lovell was asked to make a presentation in front of a hostile Joint Chiefs of Staff , who were skeptical of OSS plans beyond collecting military intelligence and were ready to split
15939-479: The human body, generally on people who were poor, sick, or powerless. Most of these tests were performed, funded, or supervised by the United States military , Atomic Energy Commission , or various other U.S. federal government agencies. The experiments included a wide array of studies, such as feeding radioactive food to mentally disabled children or conscientious objectors , inserting radium rods into
16100-515: The important points will be emphasized here." In 1911, Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in Manhattan , New York City injected 146 hospital patients (some of whom were children) with a syphilis extract. He was later sued by the parents of some of the child subjects, who allegedly contracted syphilis as a result of his experiments. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment ("Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in
16261-616: The influence of powerful psychoactive substances such as LSD or barbiturates . CIA documents suggest that they investigated "chemical, biological, and radiological" methods of mind control as part of MKUltra. They spent an estimated $ 10 million or more, roughly $ 87.5 million adjusted for inflation. During a hearing by the Senate Health Subcommittee , a testimony by the Deputy Director of the CIA stated that over 30 institutions and universities were involved in
16422-526: The influence of such drugs. The CIA exported experiments to Canada when they recruited Scottish psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron , creator of the " psychic driving " concept, which the CIA found interesting. Cameron had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by erasing existing memories and reprogramming the psyche. He commuted from Albany, New York to Montreal every week to work at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University , and
16583-630: The informed consent, in writing and witnessed by a disinterested party, of each such human subject" and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Commission. Subsequent orders by Presidents Carter and Reagan expanded the directive to apply to any human experimentation. In 1977, during a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence , to look further into MKUltra, Admiral Stansfield Turner , then Director of Central Intelligence, revealed that
16744-543: The intelligence section in [William] Donovan's [OSS] group is [Ellis] ... in other words, [Stephenson's] assistant in the British intelligence [sic] is running Donovan's intelligence service." The Office of Strategic Services was established by a Presidential military order issued by President Roosevelt on June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct special operations not assigned to other agencies. During
16905-409: The launch of Project Bluebird, officially renamed Project Artichoke on August 20, 1951. Directed and overseen by Brigadier General Paul F. Gaynor , the objective of Artichoke was to determine whether an individual could be made to involuntarily perform an act of attempted assassination. Morphine , mescaline and LSD were all administered on unknowing CIA agents in an attempt to produce amnesia in
17066-513: The like to develop a better understanding of how to destroy and to control human minds. In 1973, amid a government-wide panic caused by the Watergate scandal , CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed. Pursuant to this order, most CIA documents regarding the project were destroyed, making a full investigation of MKUltra impossible. A cache of some 20,000 documents survived Helms's purge, as they had been incorrectly stored in
17227-410: The major leagues. As a Secret Intelligence agent, he was dispatched to seek information on German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his knowledge on the atomic bomb . One of the most highly decorated and flamboyant OSS soldiers was US Marine Colonel Peter Ortiz . Enlisting early in the war, as a French Foreign Legionnaire , he went on to join the OSS and to be the most highly decorated US Marine in
17388-464: The military, including colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies. The CIA operated using front organizations , although some top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA's involvement. Project MKUltra was revealed to the public in 1975 by the Church Committee (named after Senator Frank Church ) of the United States Congress and Gerald Ford 's United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within
17549-657: The normal power. His "driving" experiments consisted of putting subjects into drug-induced comas for weeks at a time (up to three months in one case) while playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements. His experiments were often carried out on patients who entered the institute for common problems such as anxiety disorders and postpartum depression , many of whom suffered permanent effects from his actions. His treatments resulted in victims' urinary incontinence , amnesia , forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents and thinking their interrogators were their parents. During this era, Cameron became known worldwide as
17710-403: The noses of schoolchildren, deliberately releasing radioactive chemicals over U.S. and Canadian cities, measuring the health effects of radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests, injecting pregnant women and babies with radioactive chemicals, and irradiating the testicles of prison inmates, amongst other things. Much information about these programs was classified and kept secret. In 1986,
17871-648: The operations in Switzerland run by Allen Dulles that provided extensive information on German strength, air defenses , submarine production, and the V-1 and V-2 weapons. It revealed some of the secret German efforts in chemical and biological warfare . Switzerland's station also supported resistance fighters in France , Austria and Italy , and helped with the surrender of German forces in Italy in 1945. For
18032-415: The organization at the highest levels. The agency poured millions of dollars into studies examining ways to influence and control the mind and enhance its ability to extract information from resistant subjects during interrogation. Some historians assert that one goal of MKUltra and related CIA projects was to create a Manchurian Candidate -style subject. American historian Alfred W. McCoy has claimed that
18193-402: The orphanage, to study the disease. The author then goes on to admit that the mechanisms studied were already well understood and described in literature, so well in fact that he found it unnecessary to go beyond providing basic explanations of the processes at work, stating quote; "The subject has been so fully described in the excellent paper of C. J.White and W. H. Eobey, Jr., that only a few of
18354-572: The other side in the Cold War. Long-term debilitation and several deaths resulted from this. Heroin addicts were bribed into taking LSD with offers of more heroin. At the invitation of Stanford psychology graduate student Vik Lovell, an acquaintance of Allen Ginsberg , Ken Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA -financed study under the aegis of MKUltra, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as
18515-883: The other. The barbiturates were released into the person first, and as soon as the person began to fall asleep, the amphetamines were released. Other experiments involved heroin , morphine , temazepam (used under code name MKSEARCH), mescaline , psilocybin , scopolamine , alcohol and sodium pentothal . Declassified MKUltra documents indicate they studied hypnosis in the early 1950s. Experimental goals included creating "hypnotically induced anxieties", "hypnotically increasing ability to learn and recall complex written matter", studying hypnosis and polygraph examinations, "hypnotically increasing ability to observe and recall complex arrangements of physical objects", and studying "relationship of personality to susceptibility to hypnosis". They conducted experiments with drug-induced hypnosis and with anterograde and retrograde amnesia while under
18676-652: The papers before returning them the following January, but there is no record of Arlington Hall receiving them, and CIA and NSA archives have no surviving copies. This codebook was in fact used as part of the Venona decryption effort, which helped uncover large-scale Soviet espionage in North America. RYPE was the codename of the airborne unit who was dropped in the Norwegian mountains of Snåsa on March 24, 1945 to carry out sabotage actions behind enemy lines. From
18837-486: The possibility of intelligence uses of the drug. The third phase included Projects THIRD CHANCE and DERBY HAT which conducted experiments on 16 unwitting nonvolunteer subjects that after receiving LSD were interrogated as a part of operation field tests. After retiring in 1972, Gottlieb dismissed his entire effort for the CIA's MKUltra program as useless. Files discovered in 1977 containing 700 pages of new information showed that experiments had continued until Gottlieb ordered
18998-592: The program and build up the dive element for the organization. His responsibilities included training and developing methods of combining self-contained diving and swimmer delivery including the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit for the OSS "Operational Swimmer Group". Growing involvement of the OSS with coastal infiltration and water-based sabotage eventually led to creation of the OSS Maritime Unit . The bulk of
19159-553: The program halted on July 10, 1972. In 1938, LSD was created by Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. The early directors of MKUltra became aware of the existence of LSD and sought to use it for "mind-control". In the early 1950s, MKUltra director Sidney Gottlieb arranged for the CIA to buy the entire supply of LSD for $ 240,000, which in 2024, would be $ 4,227,079. This LSD supply gave Gottlieb
19320-561: The progress of the disease. By 1947, penicillin became available as treatment, but those running the study prevented study participants from receiving treatment elsewhere, lying to them about their true condition, so that they could observe the effects of syphilis on the human body. By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. 28 of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected , and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis . The study
19481-496: The research was revealed, the U.S. officially apologized to Guatemala for the studies. A lawsuit has been launched against Johns Hopkins University , Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Rockefeller Foundation for alleged involvement in the study. In 1950, to conduct a simulation of a biological warfare attack, the U.S. Navy sprayed large quantities of the bacterium Serratia marcescens – considered harmless at
19642-399: The rights of an individual, and not excusable because the illness which followed had implications for science." The study was later published in the Journal of Pediatrics . The Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study was a controlled study of the effects of malaria on the prisoners of Stateville Penitentiary near Joliet, Illinois , beginning in the 1940s. The study was conducted by
19803-508: The room fled. In reality, the Hedy, jokingly named after Hollywood movie star Hedy Lamarr for her ability to distract men, later saved the lives of some trapped OSS operatives. Not all projects worked. Some ideas were odd, such as a failed attempt to use insects to spread anthrax in Spain. Stanley Lovell was later quoted saying, "It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid
19964-601: The service records of those who served. OSS soldiers were primarily inducted from the United States Armed Forces . Other members included foreign nationals including displaced individuals from the former czarist Russia, an example being Prince Serge Obolensky . Donovan sought independent thinkers, and in order to bring together those many intelligent, quick-witted individuals who could think out-of-the box, he chose them from all walks of life, backgrounds, without distinction to culture or religion. Donovan
20125-476: The sick, and mentally disabled individuals, often under the guise of "medical treatment". In many of the studies, a large portion of the subjects were poor, racial minorities, or prisoners. Many of these experiments violated US law even at the time and were in some cases directly sponsored by government agencies or rogue elements thereof, including the Centers for Disease Control , the United States military , and
20286-514: The subjects. In addition, Project Artichoke aimed to employ certain viruses such as dengue fever as potential incapacitating agents . The project was headed by Sidney Gottlieb but began on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953. Its aim was to develop mind-controlling drugs for use against the Soviet bloc in response to alleged Soviet , Chinese , and North Korean use of mind control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war during
20447-482: The subsequent autopsy, Bartholow noted that some brain damage had occurred due to the electrodes but that she had died due to the cancer. Bartholow was criticized by fellow physicians and the American Medical Association formally condemned his experiments as he had caused direct harm to the patient, not in an attempt to treat her, but solely to gain knowledge. Additional issues were raised with
20608-699: The suggestion of William Stephenson , the senior British intelligence officer in the western hemisphere, Roosevelt requested that William J. Donovan draft a plan for an intelligence service based on the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Special Operations Executive (SOE). Donovan envisioned a single agency responsible for foreign intelligence and special operations involving commandos , disinformation , partisan and guerrilla activities. Donovan worked closely with Australian-born British intelligence officer Charles Howard 'Dick' Ellis , who has been credited with writing
20769-652: The time that it might cause cancer. In 1953, Dr. Frank Olson and several other colleagues were unknowingly dosed with LSD as part of a CIA experiment, MK-ULTRA . Olson died nine days later after falling to his death from a hotel window under suspicious circumstances. The San Francisco Chronicle , December 17, 1979, p. 5 reported a claim by the Church of Scientology that the CIA conducted an open-air biological warfare experiment in 1955 near Tampa, Florida , and elsewhere in Florida with whooping cough bacteria . It
20930-421: The time – over the city of San Francisco during a project called Operation Sea-Spray . Numerous citizens contracted pneumonia-like illnesses, and at least one person died as a result. The family of the person who died sued the government for gross negligence, but a federal judge ruled in favor of the government in 1981. Serratia tests were continued until at least 1969. Also in 1950, Dr. Joseph Stokes of
21091-474: The use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means. They also revealed that at least one subject, Frank Olson , had died after administration of LSD. Much of what the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission learned about MKUltra was contained in a report, prepared by the Inspector General's office in 1963, that had survived
21252-659: The war he became a Physician, Researcher and was a co-founder of The American Trauma Society. "Jumping Joe" Savoldi (code name Sampson) was recruited by the OSS in 1942 because of his hand-to-hand combat and language skills as well as his deep knowledge of the Italian geography and Benito Mussolini's compound. He was assigned to the Special Operations Branch and took part in missions in North Africa, Italy, and France during 1943–1945. One of
21413-610: The war, however unorthodox or untried". In 1939, a young physician named Christian J. Lambertsen developed an oxygen rebreather set (the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit ) and demonstrated it to the OSS—after already being rejected by the U.S. Navy—in a pool at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C., in 1942. The OSS not only bought into the concept, they hired Lambertsen to lead
21574-510: The war, the OSS supplied policymakers with facts and estimates, but the OSS never had jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence activities. The FBI was left responsible for intelligence work in Latin America, and the Army and Navy continued to develop and rely on their own sources of intelligence. OSS proved especially useful in providing a worldwide overview of the German war effort, its strengths and weaknesses. In direct operations it
21735-479: The women's embryos in an attempt to discover at what stage, and to what extent, radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In another study, they gave 25 newborn babies (who were under 36 hours old and weighed from 5.5 to 8.5 pounds (2.5 to 3.9 kg)) iodine-131, either by oral administration or through an injection, so that they could measure the amount of iodine in their thyroid glands, as iodine would go to that gland. In another AEC study, researchers at
21896-628: Was a banker from Chicago named Lanning "Packy" Macfarland, who maintained a cover story as a banker for the American lend-lease program . Macfarland hired Alfred Schwarz, an Austrian businessman (* 25. April 1904 in Prostějov , Austria-Hungary ; † 13. August 1988 in Lucerne , Switzerland ) who came to be known as "Dogwood" and ended up establishing the Dogwood information chain. Dogwood in turn hired
22057-454: Was alleged that the experiment tripled the whooping cough infections in Florida to over one-thousand cases and caused whooping cough deaths in the state to increase from one to 12 over the previous year. This claim has been cited in a number of later sources, although these added no further supporting evidence. During the 1950s, the United States conducted a series of field tests using entomological weapons (EW). Operation Big Itch , in 1954,
22218-631: Was also involved in the Secret Intelligence Service and who experimented on his patients without their consent, causing similar long-term damage. In the 1980s, several of Cameron's former patients sued the CIA for damages, which the Canadian news program The Fifth Estate documented. Their experiences and lawsuit were adapted in the 1998 television miniseries The Sleep Room . Naomi Klein argues in her book The Shock Doctrine that Cameron's research and his contribution to
22379-481: Was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II . The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces . Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion , and post-war planning. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors,
22540-564: Was appointed "Coordinator of Information" on July 11, 1941, heading the new organization known as the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). Ellis, described as Donovan's "right-hand man", "effectively ran the organization". Writes Fink: Ellis was sent from New York by William Stephenson "to Washington to open a sub-station to facilitate daily liaison with Donovan, who reciprocated by sending [future Director of Central Intelligence, DCI] Allen Welsh Dulles to liaise with BSC in
22701-417: Was attributed to Olson's being subjected, without his knowledge, to such experimentation nine days before his death. The CIA itself subsequently acknowledged that these tests had little scientific rationale. The officers conducting the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers. In Canada, the issue took much longer to surface, becoming widely known in 1984 on a CBC news show, The Fifth Estate . It
22862-558: Was covertly dosed by his CIA supervisor and nine days later plunged to his death from the window of a 13th-story New York City hotel room, supposedly as a result of deep depression induced by the drug. According to Stephen Kinzer , Olson had approached his superiors some time earlier, doubting the morality of the project, and asked to resign from the CIA. Some subjects' participation was consensual, and in these cases they appeared to be singled out for even more extreme experiments. In one case, seven drug-addicted African-American participants at
23023-486: Was designed to test munitions loaded with uninfected fleas ( Xenopsylla cheopis ). In May 1955 over 300,000 uninfected mosquitoes ( Aedes aegypti ) were dropped over parts of the U.S. state of Georgia to determine if the air-dropped mosquitoes could survive to take meals from humans. The mosquito tests were known as Operation Big Buzz . The U.S. engaged in at least two other EW testing programs, Operation Drop Kick and Operation May Day . In 1963, 22 elderly patients at
23184-461: Was learned that not only had the CIA funded Cameron's efforts, but also that the Canadian government was fully aware of this, and had later provided another $ 500,000 in funding to continue the experiments. This revelation largely derailed efforts by the victims to sue the CIA as their U.S. counterparts had, and the Canadian government eventually settled out of court for $ 100,000 to each of the 127 victims. Cameron died on September 8, 1967, after suffering
23345-777: Was modeled after Great Britain's Special Operations Executive , which included parachute, sabotage, self-defense, weapons, and leadership training to support guerrilla or partisan resistance. Considered most mysterious of all was the "cloak and dagger" Secret Intelligence, or SI branch. Secret Intelligence employed "country estates as schools for introducing recruits into the murky world of espionage. Thus, it established Training Areas E and RTU-11 ("the Farm") in spacious manor houses with surrounding horse farms." Morale Operations training included psychological warfare and propaganda. The Congressional Country Club (Area F) in Bethesda, Maryland ,
23506-431: Was not shut down until 1972, when its existence was leaked to the press, forcing the researchers to stop in the face of a public outcry. In 1941, at the University of Michigan , virologists Thomas Francis , Jonas Salk and other researchers deliberately infected patients at several Michigan mental institutions with the influenza virus by spraying the virus into their nasal passages. Francis Peyton Rous , based at
23667-473: Was obviously not obtained from any of the subjects." The committee noted that the "experiments sponsored by these researchers [...] call into question the decision by the agencies not to fix guidelines for experiments." Following the recommendations of the Church Committee, President Gerald Ford in 1976 issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities which, among other things, prohibited "experimentation with drugs on human subjects, except with
23828-596: Was operated on 30 times—suffered from infections and many failed surgeries before they were finally cured of vaginal fistula. The period between 1845 and 1849 during which Sims operated on enslaved women was one during which the new practice of anesthesia was not universally accepted as safe and effective. In 1874, Mary Rafferty, an Irish servant woman, came to Dr. Roberts Bartholow of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati , Ohio for treatment of
23989-612: Was paid $ 69,000 from 1957 to 1964 (US$ 766,936 in 2024, adjusted for inflation) to carry out MKUltra experiments there. The Montreal experiments research funds were sent to Cameron by a CIA front organization, the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, and as shown in internal CIA documents, Cameron did not know the money came from the CIA. In addition to LSD, Cameron also experimented with various paralytic drugs as well as electroconvulsive therapy at thirty to forty times
24150-539: Was preceded by Project Artichoke . It was organized through the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence and coordinated with the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories . The program engaged in illegal activities, including the use of U.S. and Canadian citizens as unwitting test subjects. MKUltra's scope was broad, with activities carried out under the guise of research at more than 80 institutions aside from
24311-482: Was quoted as saying, "I'd rather have a young lieutenant with enough guts to disobey a direct order than a colonel too regimented to think for himself." In a matter of a few short months, he formed an organization which equalled and then rivalled Great Britain's Secret Intelligence Service and its Special Operations Executive . Donovan, inspired by Britain's SOE, assembled an outstanding group of clinical psychologists to carry out evaluations of potential OSS candidates at
24472-509: Was responsible for training German and Austrian individuals for missions inside Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists and Socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi prisoners-of-war, and German and Jewish refugees. The OSS also recruited and ran one of the war's most important spies, the German diplomat Fritz Kolbe . From 1943 the OSS was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around Kaplan Heinrich Maier . As
24633-466: Was shortly thereafter shut down. The OSS purchased Soviet code and cipher material (or Finnish information on them) from émigré Finnish army officers in late 1944. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. , protested that this violated an agreement President Roosevelt made with the Soviet Union not to interfere with Soviet cipher traffic from the United States. General Donovan might have copied
24794-548: Was successful in supporting Operation Torch in French North Africa in 1942, where it identified pro-Allied potential supporters and located landing sites. OSS operations in neutral countries, especially Stockholm , Sweden , provided in-depth information on German advanced technology. The Madrid station set up agent networks in France that supported the Allied invasion of southern France in 1944. Most famous were
24955-471: Was the name given to the continuation of the MKULTRA program. The MKSEARCH program was divided into two projects dubbed MKOFTEN and MKCHICKWIT . Funding for MKSEARCH commenced in 1965, and ended in 1971. The project was a joint project between the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and the CIA's Office of Research and Development to find new offensive-use agents, with a focus on incapacitating agents . Its purpose
25116-614: Was the primary OSS training facility. The Facilities of the Catalina Island Marine Institute at Toyon Bay on Santa Catalina Island , Calif. , are composed (in part) of a former OSS survival training camp. The National Park Service commissioned a study of OSS National Park training facilities by Professor John Chambers of Rutgers University. The main OSS training camps abroad were located initially in Great Britain, French Algeria, and Egypt; later as
25277-550: Was the site of an OSS training camp that operated from 1942 to 1945. Area "C", consisting of approximately 6,000 acres (24 km ), was used extensively for communications training, whereas Area "A" was used for training some of the OGs (Operational Groups). Catoctin Mountain Park , now the location of Camp David , was the site of OSS training Area "B" where the first Special Operations, or SO, were trained. Special Operations
25438-569: Was to deal with testing and toxicological transmissivity and behavioral effects of drugs in animals and, ultimately, humans. MKCHICKWIT was concerned with acquiring information on new drug developments in Europe and Asia, and with acquiring samples. In January 1957, the CIA started a subproject of MKUltra in effort to broaden their scientific research. " Subproject 68 ", conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal under
25599-475: Was to develop a truth serum which would, in the words of one laboratory assistant to Dachau scientist Kurt Plötner , "eliminate the will of the person examined". American historian Stephen Kinzer argues that the CIA project was a "continuation" of these earlier Nazi experiments, citing the numerous German scientists who were hired to work for the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip . American interest in drug-related interrogation experiments began in 1943, when
25760-553: Was to develop, test, and evaluate capabilities in the covert use of biological, chemical, and radioactive material systems and techniques of producing predictable human behavioral and/or physiological changes in support of highly sensitive operational requirements. By March 1971, over 26,000 potential agents had been acquired for future screening. The CIA was interested in bird migration patterns for chemical and biological warfare (CBW) research; subproject 139 designated "Bird Disease Studies" at Pennsylvania State University . MKOFTEN
25921-528: Was using their work for these purposes. The project attempted to produce a perfect truth serum for interrogating suspected Soviet spies during the Cold War and to explore other possibilities of mind control. Subproject 54 was the Navy's top-secret "Perfect Concussion" program, which was supposed to use sub-aural frequency blasts to erase memory; the program was never carried out. Most MKUltra records were destroyed in 1973 by order of CIA director Richard Helms , so it has been difficult for investigators to gain
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